XT and I attended the Pirates game last night against the Reds and during the game were discussing how the tables have seemed to turn with regard to the Pirates since the blockbuster trades of recent weeks.

Bucs lost last night 3-1 and Ian Snell pitched fairly well, though he gave up far too many walks and had almost as many balls as strikes when he reached the magical 100 pitches. The Pirates were hitting the ball but were consistently leaving runners on base. Before the trades, we had the hot bats and lousy pitching and now it seems we have fairly good pitching and inconsistent bats! I love my Pirates but they are so frustrating at times!

Skyblast and the REO Speedwagon concert after the game were absolutely phenomenal!!! As always, Zambelli did an awesome job with the fireworks display and REO sounded just as great as they did back in the 80's! These guys are now close to 60 years old and they still have that incredible sound! I got a bit teary eyed listening to a couple of their songs as they brought back some really fond memories for me.

Thanks, Pirates, for the perfect way to end the evening (even with a loss!).

XT and I attended the Pirates game last night against the Reds and during the game were discussing how the tables have seemed to turn with regard to the Pirates since the blockbuster trades of recent weeks.

Bucs lost last night 3-1 and Ian Snell pitched fairly well, though he gave up far too many walks and had almost as many balls as strikes when he reached the magical 100 pitches. The Pirates were hitting the ball but were consistently leaving runners on base. Before the trades, we had the hot bats and lousy pitching and now it seems we have fairly good pitching and inconsistent bats! I love my Pirates but they are so frustrating at times!

Skyblast and the REO Speedwagon concert after the game were absolutely phenomenal!!! As always, Zambelli did an awesome job with the fireworks display and REO sounded just as great as they did back in the 80's! These guys are now close to 60 years old and they still have that incredible sound! I got a bit teary eyed listening to a couple of their songs as they brought back some really fond memories for me.

Thanks, Pirates, for the perfect way to end the evening (even with a loss!).

That didn't change much last night either - Jason Davis pitches 7 innings and allowed the only 2 runs of the night in the first inning, but the Bucs lost 2-1, again, because they couldn't get hits when they counted. The LaRoche Bros. were a combined 6 for 9 last night, but the rest of the team couldn't do jack with them on base. McLouth got caught in a run-down in a bad baserunning mistake, and Adam LaRoche got thrown out at home trying to score from second on a single by Andy LaRoche. Frustrating is right!

But I'm glad you enjoyed the concert on Thursday - it really was very good, much better than I expected!